Unification

The Burrow was almost as much as a shock to Julia as Hogwarts was. It was an unruly mess of a house that was several stories tall and looked as if it would fall over at any minute. Five figures on broomsticks zoomed above, tossing objects back and forth. A door opened in the back, and a woman with the same flaming red hair Ron possessed hurried out to meet the group. She rushed toward them and hugged each in turn. "Ron, dear, so good to see you... Hermione, sweetheart, you look so lovely!... And Harry. You need to eat better. You're just too thin." She came to Julia, and a smile crossed her lips. "And who is this?"

"Hi. I'm Julia."

Pulling her to his side, Harry grinned. "She's with me."

Molly Weasley hugged her. "Well, any friend of Harry's is a friend of ours. I'm Ron's mother, Molly, and - " she pointed up into the sky - "up there is Bill, Charlie, Fred, George, and Ginny."

Ron's eyes widened. "Mum, what is Ginny doing up there? She shouldn't be on a broom!"

Harry leaned in close and whispered to Julia. "Ginny is Ron's little sister. She's four months pregnant." He turned to Mrs. Weasley. "So is her lovely husband here?" he asked, sarcastically.

"Yes, he is," Mrs. Weasley said, shaking her finger at both Ron and Harry. "And there will be no trouble from either of you, d'you hear me?"

Hermione strode up to beneath the figures whizzing through the sky and cupped her hands around her mouth. "Ginny! Come down here!" One of the brooms began to slide downwards, and stopped a few inches toward the ground. A strikingly beautiful redheaded woman slid off of it and embraced Hermione. They linked arms and walked toward the house together.

A pale man with a blonde ponytail intercepted the pair of women and began scolding Ginny. Although they couldn't hear what was said, Julia guessed that the man was Ginny's husband, and he wasn't happy about the fact that his wife had been flying. Harry nodded toward them, knowing what she was thinking. "That's Ginny's husband, Draco Malfoy. He's an old schoolmate, and, well... we don't like him much. If you ask me, he's a complete prat."

Molly Weasley smacked him on the arm. "Well, he may not be perfect, but Ginny chose him, and we have to behave ourselves. Now, come on. I have dinner to make and you lot have a table to set." She called to the others still in the air, and they came down and introduced themselves, and then set to work clearing a space in the garden. Before Julia's amazed eyes, a large table appeared, and the group of people began to make plates and glasses appear.

Dinner went wonderfully; Mrs. Weasley was an incredible cook, and with the exception of Ginny's husband, everyone was very happy and the conversation was always lively. There were several instances where Julia was passed cookies, only to be stopped from eating them by Harry, who glowered at the twins.

In what seemed like no time, dinner was over, the mess had disappeared, and a pick-up game of Quidditch began in the night sky. Julia, Ginny, and Mrs. Weasley were left sitting on the patio watching. Julia decided to start a conversation. "So, how are you feeling, Ginny?"

Ginny smiled and laid a hand on her stomach. "I'm fine. I got over the morning sickness, and now I feel like I'm on top of the world."

"Harry called your husband Draco a prat - what's with the two of them?"

Mrs. Weasley sighed. "Old school rivalry. They hated each other. Draco is trying to turn over a new leaf, especially since his father died. He seems nice enough now, and as long as he's good to my Ginny, I'm happy."

Ginny looked into the sky and smiled when she found her husband. "He is, Mum. I promise." Turning toward Julia, she smiled. "Enough about Draco. I want to know about you and Harry! What's going on there?" Even in the moonlight, Julia could tell that the other women knew she was blushing. "Come on, how serious are you two?"

"Well, Harry is a great guy, and..."

"...And?"

"...And I'm very much in love with him. Even after everything I've seen this weekend."

"Ah, yes, that's right, you're a Muggle," Mrs. Weasley said.

"Is Harry going to get in trouble?"

"Not really, dear, especially since Harry's something of a celebrity among our kind. My husband's the new Minister of Magic, and he's not too happy with Harry for this one... but we also trust his choices. So as long as you'll keep our secret, I'm sure everything will be okay."

"I don't understand, Mrs. Weasley," Julia said, confused. "Why is it so much of a secret? There are so many people who would love to hear that magic is real."

"I don't quite know myself, Julia. This is just the way it's always been done," said Mrs. Weasley, giving Julia an affectionate pat. "I know that isn't the best answer, but it's all I have."

Julia just gazed up at the figures zooming across the moon and wondered what was going to become of her life now that she knew about this whole other world.

Julia couldn't fall asleep. She gave up trying and got up out of the bed, treading lightly as not to wake Harry. She wrapped her robe around herself tightly and headed for the small lake out back of Harry's house. For what seemed like forever, she stared at the lights bouncing off of the small ripples on the lake's surface. She didn't even notice when Harry came up behind her and sat down. "Something on your mind, Jules?"

"Harry, I... I just don't know what to do. I don't know how to go back to normal life. How do I go back to school and do my homework and go back to work and pretend everything's normal? I'm going to be sitting there the whole time thinking it's all useless. There are two worlds here, and I suddenly don't feel like I fit in either of them."

"Do you feel like I made a mistake in telling you?"

She shook her head vehemently. "No. I appreciate your honesty. It's just... I just... I don't know what to do."

"Well, it was hard for me, too," Harry told Julia, putting one arm around her shoulders. "I basically had to pick: live in one world, or live in the other. There's no in between, unfortunately."

Julia threw a rock into the lake. "Well, here's the thing, Harry. You fit in both worlds. I only fit in one. You said it yourself: I don't have a drop of magic blood in my veins. I couldn't even see Hogwarts when you took me yesterday. I only fit in one world, and I don't know how I can sit there and pretend that my boyfriend can't fly on a broomstick."

"Julia, you just think you don't fit in my world, but you do! Did you know that there are quite a few pureblood wizarding families that produce children with absolutely no magical talent? I can think of lots of ways where you could fit in. Ron's dad used to work in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts office. They could probably use someone like you."

"But Harry, I'm not a wizard!"

"I don't think that'll matter too much."

Julia looked up at Harry. "So you're telling me to pick this new world."

Harry bit his lip. "Well... Here's the thing. I love you, and I figured that if you wanted to, you could come live here, with me. And we don't actually know for a fact that you don't have a drop of magical ability. We can get you tested. Even if the tests come out negative, my feelings won't change for you at all. We can find you something here, in my world. And then we can work on changing things from the inside out. "

"Change things?"

"If we can get you a job within the Ministry, and you don't like the fact that the Muggle and Wizard worlds are separate... you can change it."

Julia just stared at the lake.

"Um, hello, Julia? I just asked you to move in with me."

She sat up straight. "Oh my God, you did, didn't you? Well, can I think about it?"

"Sure." There was a moment of silence. "You done now?"

"No."

"What about now?" Harry was smiling mischievously.

Julia looked over at her boyfriend. He was smiling at her, and his green eyes were glinting in the moonlight. His scar stood out on his pale forehead. He'd been through so much, so much that she could never understand, but at least they now had this discovery in common.

He put up with so much from her. He put up with her ranting and raving, and her crankiness when her hectic schedule got too much. She put up with his periodic moodiness and his tendency to push people away at times. Despite all that, Julia didn't want to be anywhere else but with Harry. He was the guy who brought her daisies for no reason, and never forgot to say "I love you" before he left. She had gone through hell during her childhood years in America, and in Harry, she found safety and the unconditional love that she'd always wanted. He never considered her weird or a fish out of water. He just saw her. Just her.

This was a huge leap; Julia didn't completely like her intense schedule that seemed nothing but endless studying and work, but it was hers, and she had chosen it. Ditching that and throwing herself headfirst into this strange new world would be seriously leaving that comfort zone. It would take a huge amount of trust in Harry to do that.

"Harry, you know you're asking me to leave everything I know."

His smile faltered. "I know."

"This isn't easy, Harry. I mean, I want to move in with you. I do. It's just that I feel like I have to pick one life or the other, and if I pick one, I can't even remotely have the other. And no matter what happens, I don't want to lose you."

Harry gently took her face in his hands. "You won't lose me, Julie. I love you. You're too important to me. Do you know how hard it is to find someone who doesn't go crazy over the fact that I'm the 'Boy-Who-Lived'? You don't see me that way. Do you know how precious that is to me, that you just want to know me instead of trying to get in my pants because I'm some stupid celebrity?"

Julia bit her lip and grinned. Wait for it...

"Okay, so you could get into my pants if you wanted to."

She laughed and laid back, putting her head in Harry's lap. "I knew that was coming." She reached up and ran her hand over Harry's rough cheek, and played with his hair. Harry smiled at her, and when she next spoke, it was in hushed tones. "How could I leave this? How could I possibly say no to you, to this?"

"So you'll stay with me?"

"Yeah, I will," said Julie. "When do you want me to move in?"

"How's tomorrow looking for you?"

Julia chuckled. "Eager, aren't we? Alright, alright... but I have to quit my job and tell Suzie."

"That's something else I need to tell you... About your work. You really don't have to quit."

This surprised Julia. She sat up. "You want me to keep working at a tattoo parlor? A Muggle tattoo parlor?"

"Honey, I'd never tell you where you could and couldn't work. All I was trying to tell you was that, well... You know that new girl that your boss hired? Dora?"

"Yeah, what about her?"

"Well, when we started dating, I needed to know that you were safe. Every once in a while, some idiot gets the idea that he's going to be the next Voldemort and comes after me. They usually try to hurt whoever I care about. So, basically, I had protection put around you. Namely, Dora."

Her eyebrows shot up. "Dora's one of you?"

"More than that, actually - she's an Auror, like me, and a good friend. Her full name is Nymphadora Tonks, and she's a metamorphagus, which means she can change her appearance at will. She likes to mess around with her hair, mostly."

"And she didn't mind guard duty?"

"Nope. She actually liked you a lot. All I have to do - if you want to quit - is owl her, and she'll take care of things. Oh, and one more thing. It's kind of embarrassing, and I hope I don't sound pretentious or anything, but... I'm kinda, um, rich. So if you don't want to work, you don't have to."

Julia sat up and chuckled. "Man, did I make out. I managed to land myself a hot guy who happens to be a celebrity, knows magic, is loaded, and has a really, really big..."

"Yes?"

"...Broomstick."

Harry threw his head back and laughed. "It's a good thing you're joking," he said, starting to plant small kisses on Julia's neck. "It's even better that you're cute."

Julia playfully raised an eyebrow. "You wanna take this inside, Wizard Boy?"

Harry stood up, picked up Julia, slung her over his shoulder, and headed back into the house.